Culture Mile becomes a key pillar of the City of London Corporation’s Destination City initiative

In 2017, a partnership between the City of London Corporation, the Barbican Centre, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Museum of London went live as the Culture Mile project. Its vision is to establish a world class destination for culture and learning in the northwest part of the Square Mile. Over five years, the partnership has delivered major outdoor events, culture-commerce partnerships, creative learning, community co-creation and public realm transformation projects.

In March 2022, the City Corporation’s Chair of Policy, Chris Hayward, launched Destination City: a vision for the Square Mile to become a leading destination for workers, visitors, and residents. Destination City shares many of the aims that Culture Mile has been working to achieve - and will take them onto a bigger stage.

From April 2023, Culture Mile will become embedded within Destination City. Both projects are working together to establish how Culture Mile’s approach can fundamentally inform Destination City, and how Destination City can provide the best forum for ongoing creative collaboration between stakeholders across the entire City of London.

The City Corporation remains committed to realizing the Culture Mile vision. The area’s ongoing transformation, through major projects and by maximizing the reach and value of its cultural assets, will play a distinct part in Destination City.

Many Culture Mile workstreams will continue:

• Outdoor arts will be delivered by the Destination City team and partners as appropriate.

• The Creative Communities strand will continue under the leadership of the Communities & Neighbourhoods team at the Barbican Centre.

• Culture Mile Learning, led by the Museum of London, will determine its future in discussion with the City Corporation’s Education Board.

• The transformation of Culture Mile’s public realm will continue in the hands of the City Corporation’s Environment Department.

Since 2021, Culture Mile has supported an independent coalition of business leaders to advocate for the establishment of a new Business Improvement District (BID) in the area. The ballot on the BID proposal, which is available on the Culture Mile BID website, opens to the area’s business community on 23 January and lasts for one month. If successful, the new BID will begin a 5-year term in April 2023 and will enable the area’s businesses to influence the terms of Culture Mile’s transformation.

It is foreseeable that the Culture Mile brand, website, and social media channels will cease to be used by end March, when the project’s central coordination team stands down.

The partnership is proud of the significant portfolio of projects it has delivered. We would like to thank the many stakeholders and friends that have enabled us to reach this new, exciting stage in the development of a compelling destination offer for the Square Mile. We hope that you will continue to support Destination City, the success of the new BID, and the continuing areas of work that began with Culture Mile.

‍

For more information

Please contact Tim Jones, Culture Mile Manager: tim.jones@cityoflondon.gov.uk.

‍